Cleveland Clinic Florida Ranked One of America’s Best Hospitals for Gastroenterology and Endocrinology By U.S. News & World Report

Cleveland Clinic Florida has been ranked #17 in Gastroenterology and #40 in Diabetes/Endocrinology in U.S. News & World Report’s 2010-11 Best Hospitals, accessible online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals. Cleveland Clinic Florida is one of only three Florida-based gastroenterology programs to make the top 50 rankings and achieved the highest ranking in the State of Florida.

“It is an honor to receive this acknowledgement which recognizes our commitment to providing our patients with quality healthcare,” said Bernie Fernandez, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Cleveland Clinic Florida. “This recognition is a testimony of the dedication and collaboration among the medical staff in our Digestive Disease Center, which includes gastroenterology, colorectal surgery and bariatric surgery.”

The 2010-2011 U.S. News and World Report best hospital rankings also include Cleveland Clinic Florida in the diabetes and endocrinology category, with a ranking of #40 for the hospital’s Endocrinology and Metabolism Department. The hospital’s endocrinologists improve patient care by working collaboratively with other specialties in general surgery, pathology, radiology and oncology to treat and care for patients with complex diabetic, thyroid, osteoporotic and pituitary conditions.

“We credit every member of our endocrinology team, which includes endocrinologists, educators, nurses, dieticians, radiology technicians and administrative assistants whose hard work and dedication results in superior care for the patients we serve,” said Dr. Fernandez.

About the Rankings

Best Hospitals 2010-11 includes rankings of 152 medical centers nationwide in 16 specialties, including cancer, diabetes and endocrinology, ear, nose, and throat, gastroenterology, geriatrics, gynecology, heart and heart surgery, kidney disorders, neurology and neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, psychiatry, pulmonology, rehabilitation, rheumatology, and urology. Full data is available online for another 1,740 hospitals that qualified for ranking but did not score high enough to be ranked.

The U.S. News & World Report’s 2010-11 rankings in 12 of the 16 specialties were driven by hard data such as death rates, procedure volume, and balance of nurses and patients. In the four remaining specialties--ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and rheumatology--hospitals were ranked on reputation alone.

To be considered in any of the 12 data-driven specialties, a hospital first had to meet at least one of four criteria: It had to be a teaching hospital, or be affiliated with a medical school, or have at least 200 beds, or have 100 or more beds and the availability of four or more types of medical technology considered important in a high-quality medical facility, such as a PET/CT scanner and certain precision radiation therapies. The hospitals also had to meet a volume requirement, individually calculated for each specialty. The required volume was the number of Medicare inpatients from 2006 to 2008 who had various specified procedures and conditions in the specialty. A hospital that fell short could still qualify if it had been nominated by at least one physician in any of the U.S. News Best Hospitals reputational surveys conducted in 2008, 2009, and 2010.